COURTNEY JOHNSON



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POWER & VULNERABILITY
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Power & Vulnerability, images of large displays of power and images of microscopic diseases, addresses the tension between our biggest technological and mechanical triumphs, where we flex our power and explore our existence, and our greatest vulnerabilities: microscopic infections, deadly diseases and mutations, equally stirring within our affected bodies.

I paint on glass with ink, finger nail polish, white out, and other materials. I paint tonally creating a photographic negative, everything is it’s opposite. Then, I photographically enlarge the glass negatives, a process called cliché-verre. The result is a cross between a hand made painting and a mechanically reproduced photographic image. Each imperfection made by the human hand is exaggerated as it is enlarged. The images are painted on nine different pieces of glass, and each panel becomes individually abstracted into painterly textures, lines, and contours as they build into a collective image. Yet, the tones and sharpness of the image, even with all the imperfections, look photographic.

The contrast of mechanical and hand made production parallels the juxtaposition of the microscopic diseases and overwhelming technological power, drawing connections between both the two opposing techniques and two opposing subjects.